


Reflection

by imbadatlove



Category: Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2017-08-26
Packaged: 2018-12-20 06:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11915316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imbadatlove/pseuds/imbadatlove
Summary: Nick and Ellis both escaped to a CEDA camp. When they're however, they were both interviewed on what they'd seen in the apocalypse. But one of them finds out something that breaks him completely.





	Reflection

L4d2: Reflection

Interview 103: Nicolas Ghazi  
CEDA camp facility 8  
Monday 10:08am 2010

_Ah, Nicolas. I was wondering when you would be joining us for our trials today._

I'd really rather not join you.

_There will be no tests today that will physically harm your body in any way shape or form. We're simply going to have a chat about what you experienced in the apocalypse. Please take your time and go into as much detail as possible, not many have survived out there for as long as you and your group did. Lies will be found out and used against you if it has to come to that, Mr. Ghazi. Your criminal record has been cleared so please, don't hesitate._

_Where were you when the infection broke out?_

Savannah. I went there with my...Mafia. We went there to con some suckers out of their hard earned cash. Sounds harsh, I know, but that's just the kind of asshole I am. You get used to it fairly quickly. At a bar, some cheap ass floozy took notice of me. I took my winnings I'd earned that night and brought the chick home. We banged, and when I woke up the next morning, my cash was shredded, the bitch was still in my hotel room and she tried to bite my face off. So I shot her, nothing special. We'll all used to killing now, I bet; even you sick CEDA fucks.

_I'll pretend you didn't say that. Where did you go after that happened?_

Well I did the most logical thing any sane man would do in the apocalypse, look for an evacuation point. I started making my way towards the roof when some Southerner ran smack bang into me with some freak on his back. He was screaming at first and I knew from that very moment, that he was going to be a pain in the ass. And as predicted, he was. I saved the kids' ass and we both made our way to the roof to where the choppers' were. I would've left the kid behind, but it's strength in numbers; I may be a prick, but I know that much. On the roof we met two other people, the others in our group, Coach and Rochelle. We found out the kid was Ellis after his yammering mouth ran away with him, as it usually did.

_What do you think about your former teammates?_

Well, Coach was a fat-ass and apparently the 'Leader' of our little group. He treated us like kids pretty much, and was incredibly annoying at first, but he looked out for all of us. Big guys' a pretty good shot with a shotgun too. He's like a big ol' teddy bear. A terrifying teddy bear.

Ro, she's smart, sassy. I like that in a woman; but she's not for me. She looks out for herself more than us, making her sometimes a stuck up bitch. But, when the times' right, she's there for us, helping us survive, all of us.

Now with Ellis...I don't know what to say. At the beginning, as soon as he opened his mouth I wanted to put a bullet through his brain and I would've right there and then if I knew it wouldn't affect the team morale. Eventually, as time went by, dare I admit it, but the kid grew on me fast. He trusted me, he looked up to me in the apocalypse; but hell if I was gonna let anyone in that easily. I insulted him, I bullied him, I let a Smoker dangle him a bit longer to see him suffer when I was really pissed at him. But, no matter how much shit I threw at the kid, he never fucking once let me down. When I went down, he helped me up, when I was hurt, he gave me his pills.

And every time he would get caught, panic would fuel me and I would go hauling ass in his direction just to make sure he was alright and alive. And he'd be okay every single time. Hell, with all the apparent things he's done with 'his buddy Keith' I doubt that the apocalypse actually fazed him. Did he tell you about Keith? If he did, I feel sorry for you.

_Why do you feel this way about him? He was your teammate like the others, so why was he different?_

I hardly believe I can answer that myself right now. But I let the kid in. I let him into the stone walls to protect myself and he just had to fucking make me worry about every God damn thing he does because...I don't wanna lose him. So, I made sure he knew how I felt about him.

When we came to a near experience of inevitable death by a Tank, I shoved him against the wall, not caring about Coach and Rochelle at the time, and kissed him. He—...He gave the team hope, the optimism that seemed never ending, the smiles that seemed so forced, but they weren't. The fact that he could change anyone he met in his life and see the good in people; see them for what they could be, not who they were. He changed me.

_What happened to this 'Coach and Rochelle'? Only you and Ellis were signed at the CEDA camp._

They were fucking mauled to death. It was like a blood fest, I don't think I've ever thrown up so much.

We were surrounded by a horde out in the open, and me and El were the only ones who heard the faint but close growling of a Hunter. But not just one Hunter, two. It was shocking to say the least, as we'd never encountered two of one Infected before, but damn, I ain't ever seen so much blood and gore in one place.

The horde surrounded us all, separating us from each other. The Hunters' managed to pin down Ro and Coach and by the time me and El had made our way over to them, their intestines were astray across the ground and their organs were slipping out of their bodies. Yeah...not something I'd wanna see after I'd just eaten my pathetic excuse for a breakfast.

_How did you and Ellis make it out of that alive?_

Cheap, sheer, luck. We ran, away from them. We just left them, damnit! And we didn't do a damn thing about it because we were so convinced that they were dead and getting eaten alive that we didn't even bother to clear the horde and go see if we could help. And put them out of their misery if they were suffering from their wounds. God damn, guilts' a bitch isn't it?

_What did you do after that?_

We ran along the streets, the fields, anywhere with infected around, we stayed away from. We snuck around the areas of the city we'd drove to in a partly broken truck, and tried to find supplies, a place to stay, anything to keep us alive really. We managed to track down a few safe houses and take refuge in them for the night and take whatever supplies they had left before we were on the road again the next morning. It was the same everyday, just fighting for your life.

Is this damn interview over yet? I'm no good at this sappy shit.

_If you want, Nicolas, you can ask me any questions now and we can finish your information later. Just let me grab my clip—_

Where is he, please I need to know...

_I'm afraid I can't answer that, Nicolas. Ellis' location shouldn't mean a lot to you at this moment in time—_

He means more to me than you know, damnit!

_Sir, please calm down._

Tell me where he is!

_I'm sorry, Nick._

His head hit the floor with a sickening crunch before there was silence.

————

Interview 104: Ellis Mckinney  
CEDA camp facility 8  
Wednesday 6:57pm 2010

_Hello, Ellis. My name is Dr. Andrews, and I will be interviewing you today on whatever horrors you may have experienced in the apocalypse. Please answer truthfully and honestly; any lies may have the chance to be used against you in further consequences. But hopefully it won't have to come to that._

Well...Uh, howdy. I guess.

_Lets get started shall we? Where were you when you first found out about the apocalypse, Mr. Mckinney?_

Well, hell, I was in Savannah a'course! Tha's where I grew up an' all; I worked at an autoshop with my two buddies, Keith an' Dave. When I first foun' out 'bout tha' infection? I was workin' at the shop one day, an' this person walks in all stumblin' like he's drunk or somethin'. I walk over to off 'im some help, yanno, Southern hospitality, but he jus' stands there before he jumps and tries to take a chunk outta me! So I did wha' I thought was right at tha' point in time, I grabbed my crowbar and bashed 'is brains in.

After tha, Keith an' Dave run to me ask me wha's happened, an' we see all these freaks outside tha' damn shop! So, we armoured up a truck to drive ourselves the hell outta there, but then we encountered this big ass zombie an' god damn, he tore that truck to shit. After tha' we got out the truck, well, I did...I checked the truck for Keith an' Dave, but...They were dead.

_I am sorry to hear that, Ellis. What did you do after that?_

I drove through Savannah 'till I heard 'bout tha' CEDA evac an' decided ta make my way there, to have a better chance at survival, yanno? When I finally got there, it was tore to shit, jus' like my damn truck. So I'm thinkin', 'The hell do I go now?' And I see tons of folks runnin' for tha' fancy hotel, The Vannah. And there's whirlybirds' flyin' away so my best bet is ta head there, righ'?

As I was goin' up the stairs in the hotel, I see this freak...This small, little guy and he jumps on ma back and starts steerin' me towards the edge! I start to panic, thinkin' tha' I'm done fer, when I bump into this suited man an' he bashed the creepy lil thing off my head. I thanked him an' then we both made our way to the roof, jus' as the final whirlybird takes off leavin' four of us on tha' roof...

I found out tha' the Mr. Gamblin' man was 'Nick' an' there were two other folks with us on tha' roof, Coach an' Ro. Man, I miss 'em so damn much...

_What happened to them?_

Well, hell, it was a bloody massacre! I'd prefer ta not talk 'bout it, if tha's okay. I jus' feel guilty tha' I couldn' 'ave done anythin' ta help 'em...They didn' deserve to die the way they did. I used ta think this 'pocalypse was all jus' a game, then when we lost Coach an' Ro, I realised I needa shape up, an' realise that my damn life is on the fuckin' line 'ere, man! Then, ya see the bodies...Ya remember the faces, an' it all jus' gets too much.

Ya realise tha' one mistake, on god damn slip up, and yer dead. There ain' no escapin' death, no, and I'm lucky to have even gotten this far, but I know one thing, I made it 'cause of him.

_I'm sorry, but who's 'him'?_

Nick. He helped me, he showed me tha' this wasn' jus' a game no more, he showed me tha' I had a purpose, tha' I was the teams' hope. Call it tough love if ya wish, but he saved me; by bein' an asshole. Makes no sense to ya, I bet? But 'im bein' a prick is jus' the way of showin' tha' he cares, he jus' don' wanna get too attached to people. He thought tha' no one could see past his façade, but, man, I saw righ' through it.

An' I guess, tha's how I changed 'im. He told me tha' once, told me I made 'im a better man, tha' I changed who he was, whether he liked it or not. We'd both had a bit ta drink, an' he jus' kissed me...Righ' in front of Coach an' Ro; blame it on the alcohol if ya please, but I knew it wasn'. Tha' kiss, it reminded me tha' I was alive. Not a person, or a man, or a human, jus' alive...If ya weren' livin', yew were dead, and tha' weren' how I was gonna look at this messed up world we live in now.

 _How do you feel about him, Ellis? I won't judge, I can see the bond you two must've formed; it's happened with a lot of survivors here, both genders_.

I love 'im. But yeah, I never told 'im tha', afraid tha' he'd reject me, lock me out, hurt me with words again. Anythin' he did wrong, anytime he got hurt, anytime he left the group for a damn second, I would panic. I didn' like not knowin' where he was, 'cause he means a great deal to me, an' man I'd do anything to know where he was righ' 'bout now. An' just tell 'im how I feel, so at least I know tha' he's happy, with or without me.

Do...Do yew know where he is?

_He's at this camp, Ellis. But...I don't know if you can see him._

W-Wha'? Why not?

_...I, I can't tell you._

Please, I need ta know...Consider it a final wish fer a dyin' man.

_He's a carrier, Ellis._

And his heart of gold, his heart of optimism, shattered into thousands of tiny shards inside him.

 

**Author's Note:**

> An old oneshot from my ever distant deviantart account. Tbh, i mostly wrote this just to try out Ellis' accent lol, but as it stands, i don't over do it like some people do. 
> 
> I mean c'mon, i play the fuckin' game, and he doesn't sound half as weird as people write his speech on. You can easily understand what he says without adding in tons of 'Ah's' for 'I' and taking away letters off every word. Jesus. 
> 
> 'Kay, rant over. hope you enjoyed :3


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